I’m just an Owl. But even Owls can see. We aren’t very good at understanding what it means when we hear a “dictatorship attacks a peaceful democracy.” That is too abstract. We Owls aren’t good at abstract thinking, but we can see reality. In this day and age of almost instantaneous videos and reports from war-zones, we see what “a war of choice” means.

I’m watching little kids in winter coats with tears, wonder and fear in their eyes. They hold tightly to stuffed teddy bears, anything to make the fear go away. Next to them are their bewildered moms who can’t bear their children’s suffering. Through blasts toppling buildings, explosions cratering streets and fires, they forge on, trying to get to safety anywhere. They try, as mothers throughout history have done, to console their little ones until they can reach a railroad siding and, perhaps, a crammed escape. Yet, here are screaming wounded, there are dead, putrefying bodies lying on city streets. All of these horrors are in full sight of these innocents, for this is the murder of the innocents. Oh, yes, this is what war looks like in Ukraine.

A peaceful democracy has been invaded. Such a fate might await any of us. Dictators, and their servile, slavish yes-men and cronies always think they are smarter than “the weaklings” of democratic countries. A want-to-be “tough guy,” Vladamir Putin makes war on children and their mothers, a war insulated by a stuffing of his lies.

Sometimes, when it all becomes hard to understand, I’ve always found it best to go back to first principles. What do we believe is right about being a free country? Why do we believe Mr. Putin’s gangster tyranny wrong?

Let’s begin at the beginning. Our Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It is hard to imagine how powerful these ideas are. Whole nations, such as Ukraine, have tried to follow these principles, once liberated from the Soviet Empire’s yoke.

I like what our state of Georgia’s motto says. They contend government is best when practiced in “Wisdom, justice and moderation.” Free elections, not government imposed by force, is what the world seeks.

Nebraska’s motto contends that “Equality before the law” is their paramount ideal. Where is law when tanks, cannons and machine-guns inflict power over peaceful people? Or consider the endless Russian disinformation, or simply said, the lies which the Putin dictatorship excretes all over the internet and newswires? To this, North Carolina counters with a motto simply magnificent in simplicity. North Carolina states government is best when it can be seen “To be, rather than to Seem.” Our NATO Allies have shown the dictators of the world that we are at one with the timeless thought of Kentucky, which knows, “United we stand, divided we fall.” So when we stand together, as Americans with our NATO Allies, and our democratic fellow nations, we cannot be undermined by others.

Such a worldview is infectious. Nations who know America broke the chains of colonialism still admire that which motivated us to fight for liberty. Others want what we’ve shown a free people can bring about. They too will fight for freedom and act, “Thus always to tyrants,” as Virginia’s motto states. We in Alabama are united with the Ukrainians because they, like us, “Dare defend our rights.”

I find it hard to enjoy flying carefree around little Limestone County now, knowing thousands of our brothers and sisters in a faraway country are being gunned down by a criminal Putin regime. To our eternal credit, free people and our government are sending supplies and support to the millions of uprooted refugees and innocents burned, exploded and mutilated in this barbarous war. My friends abroad tell us their Ukrainian colleagues, friends and relatives are dying now, but dying while fighting for their right to breathe free against an attack by Putin’s terrorist killers.

You can’t keep free people down forever. Ukrainians are fighting for the same truths we fought for, liberty, equality before the law and honest government. And the Russian people, who after their long Soviet night, also want the liberties of a free press, fair elections and an honest, peaceful government. They won’t put up forever with being shoved down by Putin’s hoodlums. Though Putin now calls any opposition — any opposition at all — to his criminal actions a crime itself, his time will come. He closes the only Russian free press, shuts down civil liberties, imprisons thousands of his own people and even arrests grandmothers — who survived the Siege of Leningrad — for opposing his war.

But freedom is contagious. Once tasted, it will not be given up, even to dictators with guns, aircraft, bombs and rockets on their side. As Wyoming’s Motto says, “equal rights” is a star to follow. Free nations standing together against dictators is our strength. What a breath of fresh air that we Americans are together in opposing the Russian dictatorship’s war. Victory over dictators will come in the end.

— John William Davis is a retired U.S. Army counterintelligence officer, civil servant and linguist. He was commissioned from Washington University in St. Louis in 1975. He entered counterintelligence and served some 37 years. A linguist, Davis learned foreign languages in each country in which he served. His published works include “Rainy Street Stories: Reflections on Secret Wars, Terrorism and Espionage” and “Around the Corner: Reflections on American Wars, Violence, Terrorism and Hope.”